Uk Pension When Living Abroad

[iloveglee]

I have a question relating to a UK pension when living abroad. I have a friend who lives in Brazil, and has done so for 45+ years. He only worked in this country for a very short time. However, he has continued to pay a national insurance contribution throughout all the years of living abroad.

He is now due to take his UK pension, and has had a forecast, which is the basic pension that everybody gets. No serps or anything like that obviously. He now lives for 3 or 4 months in the UK, (or did before Covid!!), and will probably do so in the future, but his primary residence is in Brazil. He wants to have the pension transferred to him in Brazil, but isn't very sure how he goes about organising this. Also, I believe, and have told him this, that the amount he gets will not increase year on year. I am not sure however, what would happen if he decided to return to live in the UK.

He hasn't yet been in touch with the pensions department, as he isn't yet 66, but will be in just over a month.

Any advice that anyone has would be very welcome. I have never been disappointed with the responses I have had on here over the years.

[Buenchico]

Your friend can claim his State Pension NOW , as claims can be made up to a maximum of 4 months in advance. He needs to contact the International Pension Centre. (See my link below).

He'll be asked for the details of the bank account that he wishes to have his State Pension paid into. So, if he wants the money paid into a bank in Brazil, he'll need to provide the full account number, including the IBAN and BIC codes associated with it.

As you've said, the amount he'll get paid will remain static, with no yearly increases, while he remains in Brazil. (The only variations will be those due to the currency exchange rates between the British pound and the Brazilian real changing). However if the returns to the UK, his pension will return to the normal rate.

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-if-you-retire-abroad

[Peter Pedant]

3 to 4 monf in the UK - clearly is resident isnt he?
( 28 d I thought)

two accounts - clears his British acct where the pension is paid in to the Bra-heel-ian one at reg intervals.....

[bhg481]

If he lives for several months in the UK would it not pay him to open a UK bank account to have his pension paid into? That way he could transfer funds from there to his Brazilian bank when required using internet banking.

[iloveglee]

Thanks for that. Useful information. In fact, he does have a UK bank account, he also owns a property in the UK which is where he lives when he's here.

So yes, he could in fact have this paid into his UK bank account and do whatever internet banking transfers he likes. I doubt the exchange rate would be any different which way. We wondered whether doing that would mean he could be classed as 'resident' here, but I would doubt it. The fact that his passport is checked in and out on a regular basis means that there is a record of how long he remains here in any year.

To be honest, I am not at all sure what constitutes 'resident' in a country. All his life as it were, property, family, etc are in Brazil. He is not employed now, but does do consultancy work over there, so I cannot see any way he could argue residency in the UK!!

[Buenchico]

Does this help? . . .

Quote:
"Whether you’re UK resident usually depends on how many days you spend in the UK in the tax year (6 April to 5 April the following year).

You’re automatically resident if either:
* you spent 183 or more days in the UK in the tax year
* your only home was in the UK - you must have owned, rented or lived in it for at least 91 days in total - and you spent at least 30 days there in the tax year

You’re automatically non-resident if either:
* you spent fewer than 16 days in the UK (or 46 days if you have not been classed as UK resident for the 3 previous tax years)
* you work abroad full-time (averaging at least 35 hours a week) and spent fewer than 91 days in the UK, of which no more than 30 were spent working"

Source:
https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-income/residence